Duplicity
by William de Worde
Summary: Rin Nohara wasn't as perfect as everyone thought. A five part story and epilogue. [ObiRin] [Tiny hints of future ObiRinKaka OT3] [AU as of Chapter 629]
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Duplicity

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Her mission was supposed to easy. All she had to do was to eliminate the Hatake in the confusion of battle, then fake her death and return back to Kiri. If only _he_ hadn't interfered. Or, undercover spy Rin Nohara falls hard for her weak, crybaby teammate, completely against her will.

* * *

Rin Nohara is a chunin-level kunoichi from Konohagakure, a sweet and friendly girl who cared deeply for her comrades and her village.

_Please_.

* * *

Rin Nohara was no more her true name than any other name she had had. In that way, it was also no _less_ her true name than any other name she had had. She _was_ Rin Nohara, the same way as she was Ikida Shoken, or Akane Matsumoto, or any other identity she had assumed in her life.

In truth, she had no idea what her name really was. But it had never really affected her work, so she had never really cared about the fact. Tools didn't need names.

* * *

She had stopped being a chunin when she was eight, when she killed the two teammates with whom she had spent the past four years. It wasn't _hard_. She, unlike her teammates, understood what it meant to be a shinobi.

Shinobi were tools. They did not have emotions, did not need to have opinions, and most importantly of all, did not have _attachments_. It was incredibly easy to overcome the brief camaraderie she had formed with her team. It must have been harder for them, because they flinched and refused to attack her, even when she was open.

That had made it easier to take them down. She had become a jonin of Kirigakure at the age of eight, stained with the blood of the only friends she had ever had.

There was a reason why her village was called 'the Bloody Mist', after all.

* * *

When she was ten, she was given a mission from the Mizukage himself.

War had erupted a few years earlier between two great powers- Konohagakure and Iwagakure- and it seemed that even her own village, Kirigakure, would find itself caught up in battle.

Her village was weak in comparison to the two main combatants, and they desperately needed any advantage they could get.

And so, she was given a long-term mission- infiltrate Konohagakure and remain as a sleeper agent within its ranks, and to await further instructions. She would be alone; her cover was to be an orphaned girl from one of the numerous battles of the war, and to have teammates would increase the risk of her being caught. And if she was interrogated, the Konoha nin will learn of Kiri's involvement- and declare war.

This was something Kirigakure could not afford.

She had accepted her mission without question. Of course, she couldn't have refused it even if she wanted to. The Mizukage's word was law.

And so she had bid her sensei- the only person she still remotely cared about- goodbye, and set on her mission. Her pale hair was dyed a light brown, her almost black eyes covered with brown contact lenses. The distinctive purple clan marks on her cheeks could not be disguised for fear of raising suspicion- but there were no other of her clan in her village, and so her ancestry would not raise alarm in the Konoha population.

* * *

She had always been a good actor.

With this talent, she had set up an identity of 'Rin Nohara', a young girl who was kind, friendly, and entered the Academy for the sole purpose of learning how to heal, how to save lives. She was not especially skilled; she was only average with weaponry, and only excelled in academics and medical training. Rin was from a civilian family torn apart by the horrors of war, and wanted nobody else to experience what she did. She was unassuming, innocent, and treated everyone she met with respect.

Rin was eight- as a result of malnutrition and disease, most children in Kirigakure were much smaller than those from other villages. She was no exception, and the fact allowed her to pass as a child two years younger than she actually was with ease.

Nobody suspected her, and she liked it that way.

* * *

It was in the Academy that Rin first learned about Kakashi Hatake. It was hard not to- the boy was, after all, a prodigy. He had became a genin at age five, and made chuunin only a year later. Now, he was the apprentice of the rising star Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha. The progeny of the disgraced White Fang, Hatake definitely lived up to his father's reputation.

Despite herself, Rin was impressed. She had only been made jounin because of Kirigakure's very lax standards for promotion and her own ruthlessness. There was no doubt that Hatake had been promoted due to his own skill and ability.

Then she had met him, and he had fallen short of every expectation she had held about him.

The boy was an arrogant, immature _brat_. Despite his rapid ascension in ranks, he was childish and callous, showing a rude disregard to all those he deemed to be below him. Rin would love to have the opportunity to hoist him by his own petard.

But she remained civil and pretended to- of all things- have some puerile _crush_ on the boy. Rin took every opportunity she had to tail him through the village and gain more information on his personality- his weaknesses. Even his sensei had fallen for her blushing, lovestricken act when she had asked him what Hatake would want as a birthday present and, in the process, was told the story of Hatake's father issues.

Rin knew that one day, she would be ordered to eliminate him. Despite his abrasive personality, Hatake was a rising star in Konoha's shinobi force. One day, he would pose a major threat. She would have to take care of him before then.

* * *

She knew her plans had come into fruition on the last day of the Academy, when the Academy instructor had read off the names for the new genin teams. Team 7 would be an unique case, he had announced, as two of the members will be Minato Namikaze and his apprenticed chuunin, Kakashi Hatake. The other two members will be selected from the ranks of graduating students.

Rin smiled to herself when he had called her name- and her expression turned upside down when the instructor announced the other member of her team.

Obito Uchiha.

_Obito _Uchiha.

She silently cursed whoever had decided the team assignments in the first place. Of all the people who could have been put on her team, it had to be _him_.

* * *

She didn't hate Obito. Quite the opposite, actually.

He had been in her class in the Academy. Rin's first impression of him had been... not good.

The boy had charged into class thirty minutes late wearing bright colors and orange goggles, panting and gasping from the exertion so hard that for a moment, she thought he was having an asthma attack. He had spent the next ten minutes making idiotic excuses for his tardiness, before the Academy instructor told him to pick a seat.

And Obito had picked the one behind her. Of _course_.

Rin had greeted him kindly, responding with the appropriate concern when he had told her the long story of why exactly he was late to class- an epic consisting of black cats, elderly women who had to cross the street, and somehow getting lost in the small red light district of the village. She hadn't expected him to mean more to her than a faceless classmate.

But he did.

Truth is, she had focused her attention on him because of his clan. The Uchiha's and their prized Sharingans were envied across the nations, and Konoha especially for being home to not one, but _two_ extremely powerful doujutsu. Perhaps she could weasel clan secrets out of the boy. After all, he didn't seem particularly bright.

Logically, Rin should have directed her energies elsewhere after she realized that not only did Obito know absolutely nothing important about his clan, he was seen as the dead last, the weakling. He didn't pose a threat to her mission and he didn't know any information she needed. But he had... _grown_ on her, and she had remained.

Now that she thought about it, it was a mistake.

She had gotten attached. Obito Uchiha might be an idiot, a failure shinobi who fell short of all expectations his clan put on him, but he was oddly endearing. He had been the first person in her life to treat her with kindness, to treat her as just another person. He didn't expect anything from her, didn't want to use her for anything. He was... _sweet_.

That was how Obito Uchiha became Rin Nohara's first, and for a long time, only real friend.

Then he started bringing her presents. First an oddly shaped rock that he had tried carving into a heart, then tidbits from his own lunch. And one day, he had left a bouquet of flowers on her desk. They were small and dull colored and the sloppiness of the wrapping made it clear that he had made it himself, while the tiny smudges of red made it obvious that Obito hadn't known the clip the thorns of the roses before using them.

Rin wasn't an idiot. She knew what was going on. But still, she pretended to be oblivious to his advances, thanking Obito for being such a great 'friend' whenever he presented her with a gift and seeing him wilt. It was not reasonable, but she hoped- desperately- that he would grow out of his childish crush and that she wouldn't have to reject him explicitly...

...Because she feared that if it ever got to that point, she couldn't bring herself to say no.

She thought the hapless infatuation would end after they graduate from the Academy, when they ended up on different teams and wouldn't see each other on a daily basis.

Unfortunately for her, that didn't happen.

* * *

Rin's team clashed in interesting ways. Obito and Kakashi had always held some degree of animosity for each other, even when the former was still in the Academy. Hatake was everything that Obito wanted to be and couldn't, an embodiment of everything he disliked- arrogant, rule-abiding, and dismissive. And... she knew that a large factor in the two's rivalry was because of her faked attraction to the Hatake.

Against her will, she began to get attached to her team.

Minato-sensei might be a cold-blooded killer on the battlefield, but with them, he was funny, kind, and genuinely caring. He didn't prod into her past- and perhaps that was a mistake- and talked to her privately whenever he felt that she needed one. Over the years, he became like the father she had never had.

She had grown to tolerate Kakashi, though she by no means liked him. His treatment of Obito definitely played a large part in her dislike, though she wouldn't admit it under sustained torture.

And Obito... she was getting too close. _Much_ too close. Some times, she even entertained foolish dreams like- like ending contact with her village and changing her loyalties to stay, or maybe even getting him to run away with her to somewhere where none of her enemies could find her. She knew that he would agree if she asked- Obito had nothing left for him in the village except for a misplaced sense of loyalty and a few kind relations.

Maybe, just _maybe_- when Rin finally returned to her village, she could convince him to come with her. Her kage wouldn't be displeased- he was an Uchiha after all, no matter how lack luster of one he was. He would be important to Kirigakure.

But deep down, she knew she was entertaining foolish dreams. Obito might... _love_ her, but he, like most of their fellow shinobi, was fiercely loyal to Konohagakure and the so-called "Will of Fire". And even if he went with her back to her village... she knew what her Mizukage did to people with useful bloodlines- kekkai genkai. She would let that happen to Obito over her dead body.

Then one day, she had gotten a message- heavily encrypted in a code that she had been forced to memorize before leaving on her mission, all those years ago.

It said simply, _Eliminate Kakashi Hatake. Fake your death and return to the village._

The next day, Minato-sensei announced that they would be leaving on an important mission in Kisagakure the next day, to destroy an important pathway for supplies going to Iwagakure.

Kannabi Bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Duplicity

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Rocks fall, and her world falls apart. It all goes wrong, and Rin is faced with a decision that will shape the rest of her life.

* * *

They left at dawn. Or would have, if Obito hadn't been late.

She had given Kakashi a congratulations gift for joining the ranks of Konoha's jounin- at twelve, he was the youngest ever to do so. It was a special medical bag that, if everything went according to plan, the boy would never get the chance to use. After all, shinobi die on missions. It wouldn't be surprising if Kakashi Hatake was killed by enemy nin, or bled out from a stray kunai in the heat of battle.

This was her chance, and she intended to make the most of it. She would return to her village in glory, and she would never again have to think about the crybaby Uchiha who had, completely accidentally, slipped past her protective veneer and into her heart.

In his typical fashion, Obito had completely forgotten about his teammate's ascension to jounin. That had lead to an argument between the two, which had delayed their departure far more than Obito being tardy by ten minutes.

She felt a tinge of nostalgia to realize that she would never again listen to the bickering of her two teammates, nor Sensei's hapless attempts of placating the two. After all, by the end of this mission, Kakashi will be dead, and she will be halfway to Kiri.

* * *

Under Kakashi's command, the squad moved stealthily across the enemy landscape.

The enemy nin finally made an appearance with a shower of lethal stakes, and Rin dove into combat, taking care to limit her arsenal into that of a below average Konoha chuunin. She dodged a swipe of kunai and saw, in the distance, one of the Iwa nin. He gave her a malicious look, but her attention was focused on the message his fingers were communicating through taps on his left leg.

The actual content was pure gibberish, but she understood the reasoning. That specific kind of communication was originally developed in Kiri and was still seldom used outside of their ranks. The fact that an Iwa nin was using it to send her- a Konoha nin- told her one thing, and one thing only.

Kirigakure and Iwagakure must have formed a temporary alliance, and the former had instructed the latter to assist them in retrieving their spy. Rin nodded back almost imperceptibility and slowed her movements to make it look like she was suffering from fatigue. Hopefully, the Iwa shinobi would be intelligent enough to see the opening she was giving them.

Moments later, Rin stood tensely, a kunai held to her throat. The sharp blade had made a small cut in the skin of her neck, which was now oozing blood. She was losing her touch- she hadn't noticed the nin hidden behind her until it had been too late. Konoha was turning her soft.

A low voice whispered in her ear, "Pretend to be unconscious, or you'll have to do more than pretend." She collapsed immediately- thankfully, her captor caught her body instead of letting her slam into the hard dirt. She gritted her teeth- this was an incredibly undignified, vulnerable position to be in.

Rin stayed unmoving as her (old) teammates- or Obito, rather- exchanged words with the Iwa nin. Obito wasn't going to let her go, she realized. That wasn't the kind of person he was; it was against the boy's nature to give up a teammate without a fight.

This was good. If her (old) team came after her, they would be lured into an ambush and prevented from completing the mission- and during the confusion, Rin would be safe to eliminate her target. Kakashi wouldn't even know who did it. For some reason, the fact made her feel slightly better about her mission.

But deep down, she had to fight the urge to shout at Obito, to warn him not to come after her- because if he did, he would die. Or, if he survived, he would learn the truth behind the kindly, sympathetic Rin Nohara he thought he loved- and that would break him. And, for some reason that she couldn't comprehend, she couldn't allow for that to happen.

As her teammates vanished, along with her surroundings, with a pop, Rin looked up and into Obito's eyes. They were defiant and stubborn, and she knew that he would not continue on his mission so easily.

* * *

"Heh. So you're Kiri's little spy, huh? They weren't kidding when they said that you wouldn't look the part."

Rin stayed stoic under the Iwa nin's appreciating eyes. "I require more time. I have not yet completed my assignment."

The man grinned grotesquely, rotten teeth showing under purple gums. "You are a serious little girl, aren't you? But no, sorry- your higher-ups want you back, _now_. Looks like you took a bit too long, missie. Me thinks your kage is getting second thoughts about your loyalty."

Her expression tightened. Impossible. She had the complete trust of her village, and she had kept up with her reports, to and from her leader. "Tell them I will return once I have eliminated my target," she bit out. "And once I have done so, I will prove that my loyalty still resides with the Mizukage-sama."

"No can do," he shrugged nonchalantly. "We can't let you leave."

There was something wrong about this situation, Rin decided. After all, she had already sent confirmation to her village head of plans- he had no reason to doubt her loyalty. This was suspicious. And in situations like this, it was better to be safe than to be sorry.

"Really," she said, and formed her hands into seals. "Say I don't believe you."

The Iwa nin stared at her incredulously- and let out a bark of laughter. "Ha! Guess you're smarter than you look. But I'm afraid I can't let you leave this place- at least not alive."

Rin peered at him with calculating eyes. "What happened to Iwa's alliance with Kiri? Or, was that a lie as well?"

"Heh. That wasn't a lie. But I doubt your village will care about a single deep cover spy killed in action. I bet you know more secrets than we do- am I right?"

She didn't reply. So... the enemy shinobi were after her information, which were so important to them that they would turn against their ally in order to get it. That left only one thing for her to do- she could not afford to have her knowledge fall into the hands of traitors.

It was not until the handle of a kunai thudded into the back of her head that Rin realized just where exactly the other Iwa nin had gone.

_Crap_-!

Through her dimming vision, she saw the man grin victoriously, his hand snapping into a flurry of seals that she remembered as a very strong genjutsu. Shit- it seemed that they had better ways to interrogate her than through torture.

The last thing she heard before everything turned dark was a taunt.

"Sweet dreams."

* * *

Rin woke up to the sight of a worried looking Obito peering at her frantically. Kakashi hovered behind him, looking awkward, one of his eyes swollen shut.

She was restrained, her hands tied up behind her back. The genjutsu... it must not have worked, she decided. She did not remember divulging any information to the enemy nin while under the technique, and the fact that she was still alive proved it.

They had came back for her- Obito _and_ Kakashi had both set aside their mission, had considered her survival to be more important than the achievement.

"We came to save you, Rin!" The Uchiha added, somewhat needlessly. "It's alright now!"

She had considered, maybe even expected Obito to come after her- but not Kakashi. After all, he had always viewed her as some kind of burden he had to deal with, a necessary waste of time. But even he, the rule-abiding Kakashi Hatake, had came to save her from the Iwa nin.

Nobody had ever done anything remotely close to this for her. Her comrades in Kirigakure... could hardly be called that. It was survival of the fittest, and that was that. She wouldn't be surprised to learn if any of the people she knew from back then had sold her out for survival, for money, for glory.

But her team- _her_ team- had, and Rin didn't know how to react. Obito and Kakashi still stared at her, probably worried about possible brain damage she might have suffered from the genjutsu.

She smiled- a genuine one, possibly the first one in her life. She was with her boys and they were all alive, and everything was fine. It didn't matter that her village still expected her to kill Kakashi, it didn't matter that she was a deep cover spy from an enemy village. She wouldn't- _couldn't_- complete her mission, and she couldn't care less about the consequences.

For a moment, the world seemed perfect. And it had all came tumbling down, just a few moments after.

* * *

It had ended in a shower of rocks. As a last ditch attempt to stop the squad from accomplishing their mission, the Iwa nin had used a technique to cause a cave in of the cave they were all inside.

Then Kakashi had been hit by a large rock, right in his blind spot, and was sent sprawling to the ground. Rin screamed out his name instinctively, and whirled around to see her teammate's defenseless form- underneath the growing shadow of a huge boulder, one large enough to crush bones with effortless ease.

There was a split second when Rin had thought about diving for him, about pushing Kakashi away from the incoming rock- but she hesitated, and that cost her everything.

She saw, with numb horror, as Obito- the stupid, _stupid_ idiot- leaped forward, into the path of the boulder. He looked at her resolutely, and her heart fell.

_Obito, get out of there, you-_ She wanted to yell, to cry, anything to stop Obito from sacrificing himself- but she knew that nothing she could say would change his mind. With watering eyes, Rin saw him push Kakashi out of the way, giving her one last smile before the boulder slammed down with a sickening crack and her vision was obscured with dust and dirt.

* * *

"...Are you okay? Rin? Kakashi?"

She got up from the cold hard ground, limbs trembling uncharacteristically. She had been in worse situations than this- but it was different this time, in a way she could not explain.

Obito's voice came from under a massive rock to her left, and she almost screamed when she caught a glimpse of the left side of his body poking out from underneath. It was obvious that there was no going back- nobody could survive losing the right half of their body, even someone with the sheer determination and will of Obito Uchiha. That could only get a person so far, after all.

She could only stare blankly as Obito babbled, joked, and made Kakashi promise to take care of her. There were tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, and they _shouldn't_ be there- it wasn't as if she hadn't lost teammates in the past, hadn't seen fellow shinobi die in gruesome, horrific ways. Hell, this wasn't even one of the worse deaths she had seen.

But it was Obito- the boy she _loved_- underneath that rock, gasping out his last breaths, and she just couldn't hold in her tears.

Then he had smiled- _smiled_, with several tons of rock obscuring the other half of his face- and told them, almost conversationally, that he had a present for Kakashi- one that wouldn't be useless baggage.

His Sharingan.

Rin wanted to refuse, wanted to shout at Obito for being a complete idiot. Hadn't he suffered enough? And now, he wanted _her_ to give his eye- his _only_ eye- to Kakashi. He knew it would hurt- Rin had no anesthetics, no proper tools, nothing to make the surgery other than gouging Obito's eye out and popping it into Kakashi's empty eye socket.

But he had looked at her pleadingly, and she couldn't say no.

They left Obito there, under the rocks- there was nothing they could do to get him out. Even trying could send what remained of the cave toppling onto their heads.

Rin was quiet. When she and Kakashi encountered the Iwa nin outside, she couldn't bring herself to hold back. She sliced, she stabbed, she burned with a ruthless efficiency that was completely unlike anything Rin Nohara, chuunin medic nin of Konoha, could have, would have done. But if Kakashi noticed this discrepancy, he said nothing.

For a moment, they stood alone. For a moment, Rin pondered. This would be the perfect time to attack- no witnesses other than the dying-dead Obito, and Kakashi weakened from his previous battles. With a single twist of kunai, Kakashi Hatake would be no more, and she would be free to her village in glory.

But she couldn't. It was impossible for her to do so- Kakashi had saved her, Kakashi had put aside his mission to look out for her well-being, but (deep down) she knew the main reason was because Kakashi was all she had of Obito now.

* * *

There were reinforcements, and even with Rin going full out, she couldn't hold up for long.

Finally, Kakashi looked at her with empty, dead eyes. "Get out of here," he said. "I'll hold them off, and you go look for Sensei."

"You'll die," she replied, with the same lack of emotion. "You won't last long against them."

"So be it. Obito liked you... _loved_ you... and because of that, I will protect you with my life."

And he had ran forward with reckless abandon, and Rin growled. That _bastard_. Even if he made the pointless sacrifice, there were still more than enough shinobi to come after her and finish her off. And so she dove in, joined in the fighting, ever aware of her quickly depleting chakra reserves.

So they'll die here. Fitting, really. Obito had been the heart of the team- he had been the only thing connecting the two ruthless killers who were his teammates. And everyone dies without their heart, right?

But out of the corner of her sight, she saw a flash of yellow- the Yellow Flash-

_Sensei_.

He butchered the enemy nin with ease, moving so fast that only a few drops of arterial blood had landed on his clothing. The tide was turning quickly, and even though she could see Kakashi's unconscious- or so she hoped- form slumped on the ground right of her, they were going to win- to live.

She collapsed to the ground just moments later.

* * *

Kakashi and Rin sat quietly, both looking at the Memorial Stone.

There had been no body, and so Obito Uchiha would never be buried in the Konoha Cemetery. All that was left of the eager, kind boy who helped the elderly and played with the Uchiha kids was a few kanji enscribed in the black stone of the village's Memorial Stone.

"I think he would have liked this," Rin notes, "He always wanted to be a hero."

Kakashi said nothing, and she knew he was blaming himself for Obito's death. She knew he was wrong.

It had been her fault. She had foolishly trusted the Iwa nin, had put herself at their mercy. It was because of her hesitation that Obito had had to push Kakashi out of the way. It was because Rin Nohara was a Kirigakure spy that she had been kidnapped by the Iwa nin, and thus had needed to be rescued.

It was because of her that Obito was dead.

* * *

Rin never contacted her home village again. She knew that they now considered her a traitor, that they will soon send hunter-nin after her to make sure none of her secrets got out, that she could never go back. It meant nothing to her.

She avoided her pursuers for the first few months, and started to kill them after they came after her non-stop. Kakashi and Sensei- who had become the Yondaime and married his girlfriend- seemed slightly suspicious about how any innocuous mission she was sent on turned into a bloodbath. She didn't make any excuses.

If they figured out her secret, so be it. They will execute her as a traitor to Konohagakure. That was fine. The punishment fit the crime, didn't it? Her mistakes had cost Obito his life. Shouldn't hers be taken as recompense?

But she knew deep long that Obito was three times the person she was. He was a real boy- every emotion of his was genuine, every action done for his own sake, with no ulterior motives. He was loved by the Uchiha children- and especially his cousin, Itachi- and the elderly populace of Konoha. He was a good person, not like her.

Rin Nohara had no one. Rin Nohara was no one.

She gritted her teeth, and bid farewell to the boy she loved- and still did love.

_Goodbye, Obito_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Rin and Kakashi are sent on an important mission in the area surrounding Kirigakure. It's an ambush. Rin's kekkai genkai, however, picks a great time to unlock. One tiny change leads to the destruction of the plans of many a megalomaniac.

* * *

It was obvious to her that the mission was not what it seemed. But she accepted it without protest. It was either that, or to tell her team the truth- and that was something she would not do unless she absolutely had to. After all, they had already lost Obito, and that had almost destroyed them.

If she didn't know better, it would have seemed relatively innocuous. An B-ranked mission to the lands surrounding the Mist in order to gather information from one of their informants- it should have been no trouble for the two students of the infamous Yellow Flash, now Yondaime, and the squad of jonin they traveled with. Both of whom were already gaining fame- the former for being an absolutely phenomenal medic nin, the latter as Sharingan Kakashi.

But the fact that the informant specifically requested the students of the Yondaime was a tip-off. Minato-sensei was suspicious, but the information that was on hand was far more important than silly gut feelings. But to his credit, he had assigned a squad of jonin to the mission just to be safe.

That hadn't helped much in the end, after the Mist hunter nin had picked off the rest of the team one by one until only Rin and Kakashi were left, running ragged after days of not sleeping and not eating more than the occasional nip from their (decreasing) supply of tasteless ration bars.

* * *

It was on the fifth night that Rin had looked over at Kakashi as they sat shivering, taking a short break before they had to run again, and said, "I'm the one they're after. I'll stay behind."

He stared at her with his lone black eye. "I am- I was a spy from Kirigakure," she elaborates, and tries not to look away. "I've always been."

She expected him to pull out a weapon, to fling insults, to proclaim his feelings of betrayal- anything. But Kakashi did nothing.

"Was Obito supposed to die?" He asked finally, his voice soft and emotionless.

"_No,_" she denies, quicker and hasher than she had wanted to. "No, I never wanted him to die. But," Rin adds, even knowing that doing so wouldn't get her any points in her favor, "...His blood is on my hands. I surrendered myself to the Iwa shinobi without a fight. If I hadn't..."

Kakashi stays silent.

"Kakashi, you-" she starts. "...You know the truth now," she ends softly, and her fists clench. "Why aren't you_ reacting_?"

He looks back at her with a half-lidded eye. "...I think I knew. I think I've always known."

She stops at that, and says in surprise and no small amount of trepidation. "You- How?" Because if _Kakashi_ knew, then more likely than not, Minato-sensei knew as well.

"Don't worry. I never told Sensei," he says casually, almost reading her mind, as if keeping such secrets from his commanding officer wasn't a crime punishable by death. "It was... the day Obito died. We fought the Iwa shinobi together. There was no way a chuunin could have fought the way you did. You used techniques you could not possibly know, moves you have never shown before... I didn't know how, exactly, but I knew you weren't who you said you were. But even before, there was something off about you."

"I'm not," she agrees, relieved for some incomprehensible reason. After all, she probably won't return to Konoha alive, so she shouldn't be worrying about Sensei finding out the truth of her identity. "I'm not Rin Nohara, you know. She never existed."

"Then who are you?" He asks, looking strangely curious.

"I don't know," she says truthfully. "But I think if I was someone, I would be Rin."

Kakashi rests his head against the tree trunk thoughtfully. "If I leave you behind," He says, "The Kiri nin will leave me alone. I can return to the village alive."

"Yes," she agrees, "Just leave, and I'll stay here and wait for them."

"Hm. No thank you."

And Rin whirls around, eyes wide. "What do you mean," she grits out through clenched teeth. "If you don't, they will kill _both_ of us."

"I made a promise to Obito," he says simply, and Rin stops talking at the sound of _his_ name. "He told me to protect you with my life."

"Obito's _gone," s_he hisses, "He wouldn't want you to get yourself killed for no reason. Just leave me."

"If there is one thing Obito taught me," Kakashi fixates her with his one eye. "Is that those who abandon their friends are worse than trash. I can't- I _won't_ go against that, especially not with Obito looking out for me." He taps his hitai-ate where it covers his eye. It makes a metallic clink.

Rin doesn't argue.

* * *

They are ambushed in an open clearing. The hunter nin come after them like flies upon carrion- there are dozens of them, their expressionless porcelain masks glinting in the sunlight. They attack with jutsu, with blades, with kunai- but they seem to want to keep Rin alive.

She knows they want to take her back to Kiri and make sure that the death of a traitor is long and painful. If she was going to die... well, she wanted to die here, in the midst of battle with her teammate, not under whatever cruel torture the interrogation specialists have in store for her.

It all ends with a fist in her chest- Kakashi's Chidori, to be exact. It _burns_, and while her chest is numb, she can feel the blood gurgling up her throat and trickling down her lips.

"K-Kakashi-" She gasps through her dimming vision, her life's blood spraying from the exertion, her teammates pained expression forever engraved on her mind. "T-thank-" She does not to get to finish her last words.

Dimly, Rin feels a hand on her shoulder, and then a searing pain- so much more painful than anything she had felt before- as Kakashi wrenched his hand out of her chest with a sickening squelch. _  
_

And then she was falling- but she was gone before she hit the ground.

A few dozen feet away, hidden in the forest, a boy with a single Sharingan eye was crying.

* * *

She wakes up with a gasp, and that is her first clue that something had gone incredibly wrong.

Rin picks herself up gingerly and for a moment, stares at her surroundings.

While _dying _had distracted her from really paying attention to her location, she was sure this hadn't been the same place she was before. Or maybe it was all the blood covering every square foot of the previously innocent looking clearing.

Kakashi had used Chidori- on her, she remembered. So why was she alive? Her clothing was bloodstained and there was a large hole both in front and in the back of her clothing, where she had been hit. But the flesh underneath was untouched and scarless, and she stared at her body in wonder.

All of the hunter nin are dead, some of them more than others. Their bodies are scattered around the landscape, ripped apart as if some feral creature had gotten a hold of them. There's an arm a few feet away from her. She doesn't shudder.

Her thought after that is, _Kakashi_. She sees him lying face down a dozen feet away, and she thinks, _no_. Because it was her who was supposed to die- it was her who was the hunter nins' target- not _Kakashi_. But she flips him over and feels his pulse desperately, and there is one. It is feeble, but it is there.

She sits there for a moment, digesting what had happened. Someone other than Kakashi had taken down the dozens of hunter nin- the elite forces of her former village- with a frightening ease, and had moved her body away from where she had died originally. Kakashi was unconscious, but he was going to live- chakra exhaustion seemed to be his only medical problem.

And she- Rin- was alive, for some reason she could only guess at. Her heart had been crushed by the Chidori- it was a fatal injury, but she wasn't dead. In fact, it was as if she had never been hit. The only evidence it had even happened was from her destroyed clothing.

She doesn't question it. She doesn't have the time. There's a decision she was going to have to make, and she had to choose before Kakashi woke up- or if their mysterious benefactor returned.

She had to leave, Rin realized. If she stayed in the village, it would get out one day of her past as a spy- and even though she no longer relayed information to Kiri, that was a deed punished only by death. And if she was discovered, it would only cause pain and suffering for those she knew- Kakashi and Minato-sensei would derided as being unable to see a traitor within their own team. The best thing she could do for them was to get out of their lives.

After all, Kakashi had to remember landing the would-be killing blow. He wouldn't question her disappearance- or rather, her body's disappearance.

Rin stood up clumsily, tried to ignore her blood splattered clothing, and ran.

* * *

Kakashi Hatake wakes up a few hours later.

_Rin_, he thinks, _I killed Rin_. His hand is covered with her blood and gore, which had since dried into a crust on his fingers. He gets to his feet stumbling and openly gawks at his surroundings.

His enemies are dead, killed- butchered would be a better word for it, as body parts decorated the landscape in a grotesque display. And Rin- or rather, her body- was gone. She wasn't where he _killed _left her.

He searches desperately, in the forest, in the clearing, in the small river flowing nearby. But she is gone, and he realizes with a sinking feeling in his stomach that one of the hunter nin must have gotten away with her body. At least, there wasn't anything more they could do to her. She was beyond that now.

* * *

Kakashi Hatake returns to Konoha alone and blood stained- he does not tell the Yondaime about Rin, other than her death. She is mourned by a great portion of her generation and the generation after them, and she is remembered as a remarkably kind kunoichi who helped all she could. Because Rin Nohara's body could not be retrieved, she never gets a plot in the Konoha Cemetary. As a result, Kakashi never visited her grave- instead, he spends his time frequenting the Memorial Stone, on which both of his teammates names are enscribed.

Soon after, when Kushina Uzumaki tells her husband and her husband's remaining student- the one who is practically a son to them both- about her pregnancy, Kakashi visits the Memorial Stone. He says nothing about Kushina-san's top-secret pregnancy, as he knows all too well how well-known the Memorial Stone is.

The village is not infiltrated by a mysterious masked man the night of the birth of Naruto Uzumaki- or rather, Namikaze. The Yondaime never fights an orange masked man who has the ability to turn intangible at will. The Nine-Tailed Fox is never released onto Konohagakure, and Minato Namikaze never sacrifices his life in order to seal the monster into his son.

Naruto Namikaze grows up with a rambunctious mother and a doting father. Without the death of the Yondaime, the Uchiha clan remains on good terms with the rest of the village and any talk of a coup is hushed. Sasuke Uchiha grows up with a loving older brother who treats him to dango every week.

In the Academy, Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha become quick friends, like their mothers had more than a decade earlier.

And... Kakashi Hatake throws himself into the ANBU Corps and tries his best not to think about anything else. His sensei tries to pull him back, but his ties to the other world are stronger. He loved his team, he realizes too late. They were all he ever had, and now they were gone.

Sensei had his own life now. Kakashi Hatake is nothing more than a ghost.

* * *

**A/N: Decided I rather have more parts with similar word count than trying to cram the rest of the story into one chapter and an epilogue.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Rating: **K+

**Summary: **The masked man doesn't give up so easily. Akatsuki recruits Haruhi Kihara, S-ranked missing nin- formerly known as Rin Nohara. Time changes everything, and nobody is as pure as they seem. Tobi does not react well.

* * *

Even without his attempt at getting the Nine-Tails, a masked man becomes the new Mizukage- but of course, he isn't masked at the time. He runs it to the ground, enforcing terrible policies and impossible goals with a sick sort of pleasure. It was vengeance for him, to completely and utterly destroy the village who had murdered the only person he had ever loved.

An organization named Akatsuki rose in Amegakure and continued to grow, under the patronage of the man calling himself Madara Uchiha. Even without the membership of Itachi Uchiha, the organization quickly becomes feared as a group of missing nins from far and wide, all of them extremely powerful- and very deadly.

Pain recruits. A terrorist bomber from Iwa, a seemingly immortal man from an obscure village, a shark-like man under his command when he was Mizukage... Akatsuki grows, slowly and surely.

* * *

She had been expecting the visit.

Haruhi Kihara had, after all, been gaining a reputation as a mercenary who took any mission she was given- no matter how dangerous or suicidal- and could come out alive and unscathed. Any mission, except those harming children. An odd scruple for an S-ranked missing nin, but definitely understandable. Or at least, it was assumed that she was one. Unlike many of her fellows, she did not display the scratched through headband of her village proudly- in fact, nobody even knew which village she had defected from in the first place.

Some whispered that she wasn't human. Other mercenaries told horror stories about times they had to work alongside the kunoichi and how she could be stabbed, poisoned, burned- and still emerge in the aftermath, alive and completely unharmed.

She knew about the Akatsuki- or, as much as anyone knew about them. An organization of S-ranked missing nin working toward an unknown goal, they forcibly recruited anyone their leader set their eyes upon. Red clouds and black cloaks seemed to be their trademark; in a misguided attempt at blending in, the members also wore straw hats that obscured their faces- and in the process, made them stand out even more than they already did.

After taking one glance at the strange duo- a swirled orange mask, really?- she sighed. "You two are here to recruit me, huh?"

The more normal looking of the two looked surprised, lone eye widening slightly. "The hell? How did you know what we were here for?" He asked in a surprisingly masculine voice.

"I doubt your leader sent you two over here just to say hello," she drawled.

The other Akatsuki giggled in a manner completely unlike the S-ranked missing nin he was supposed to be. "She got you there, Deidara-senpai~!" He crowed in a annoying, high-pitched voice.

The other- Deidara, apparently- scowled. "Tobi. Shut the fuck up, un." He growls.

"Sorry senpai..." The masked man whined dejectedly, but his entire body language changed as he turned to face her.

"Hi!" He chirped, and 'Haruhi' got the impression that he was beaming brightly from underneath his mask. "My name's Tobi! I like the color orange!"

'Tobi' posed dramatically and gave her a thumbs up.

She stared in silence before realizing that he was waiting for her to introduce herself. "...Haruhi Kihara," she says, the false name rolling easily off her tongue, but not easily as 'Rin Nohara' had, though it had been a decade since the last time she used the name.

He looks at her, in an exaggerated thinking pose. "Eh... Hey, Haruhi-chan," Her eyebrow rose at the nickname. "Why do you have those purple marks on your face? Are they a clan thing, like those Konoha nin with the weird eyes?"

She blinked at his bluntness, but was saved from having to think of an answer to the question when Deidara interrupted.

"Ignore the idiot. Lady, Leader-sama wants you in Akatsuki, un. You want in or not? Though, you don't really have a choice. Because if you don't..." He grinned. "We'll just have to convince you otherwise."

"Uwah-! Senpai, you can't just threaten pretty ladies like that!"

"Get the hell off of me, or I'll blow you up, un!" The blonde Iwa nin shouted, trying to dislodge the masked man clinging on his robe.

This wasn't what she had expected from a pair of S-ranked missing nin, she mused as she watched Deidara try to strangle his partner with his bare hands. Not that it was a bad thing.

...Hell, was she actually contemplating the possibility? On one hand, her life had became boring over the past few years and it would be good to have _some_ kind of a goal again. Besides, while she was pretty sure she could take these two idiots down, Rin didn't want to deal with the fallout from their 'Leader-sama'.

And if nothing else, it would be entertaining, at the very least. She couldn't help the slight upturn of her lips as the two tussled on the ground, Tobi letting out high pitched cries and apologies the whole time.

It almost reminded her of the fights between- no, don't think about it.

"Sure."

Deidara looked up in surprise. "Wait, what?"

"I said, sure. I'll join your little organization. Just let me get my belongings."

"Yay!" Tobi cheered loudly, picking himself up from the ground. "Konan-san won't be the only girl anymore!"

* * *

Rin got to know her traveling companions more as they slowly made their way through Fire Country, leaping through the trees in a way she had almost forgotten over her long period away from Konoha.

Deidara was a missing nin from Iwa, as his scratched hitai-ate proudly proclaimed. He was young- late teens, maybe early twenties at most. He was, in the words of Tobi, a true artist. But in his case, his 'art' was explosions- dangerous, destructive explosions that could take out small towns if he wanted to. She could see why Akatsuki would want someone like him in the organization.

But her other traveling companion... was a complete enigma.

Tobi was just as simple as his name, at least on the surface. He was loud, brash, and seemed to have an obsession with his blonde partner in crime. He showed his emotions extremely, falling to the ground with despair and jumping up in joy. He seemed, to put it lightly, very childlike. In the course of their journey, he had showed no sign of any skills he might have other than the ability to run away quickly. He had the intelligence and maturity of a six year old, and often relapsed to referring to himself in third person.

Her background as a medic nin made her suspect brain damage of some sort, as through some kind of blunt trauma to the head.

So, why was he in Akatsuki? Her first thought had been that some member had felt sorry for the boy and had taken him in- but that didn't fit, because when she looked closer, something about Tobi was not right.

Some days, she found his expressionless mask tilted toward her, as if studying her face. But when she called him out on it, he explained that he had fallen asleep that way. His bright enthusiasm and cheerfulness seemed- and it might just be her imagination- rather fake at times. And even if someone had taken pity on him, Tobi wouldn't be able to hold such a position in the organization if he was completely useless.

* * *

It all came to a head one evening, when Deidara had left for the closest village to buy supplies.

"Haruhi-chan?"

"Yes?" She replied, glancing over at Tobi. "What is it?"

"Well, um..." He fidgeted, "To- I wanted to know... if Haruhi-chan knows what clan her cheek marks came from."

Rin froze. "...Why do you ask...?"

"Nothing! I'm just curious." The boy waved his hands wildly, as to indicate his innocence. "You see, Tobi used to know someone with cheek marks like that... And you look a lot like her, so maybe you two are related!"

"You-" She stopped. She had only ever known one person with the same marks as herself, and she saw that person in the mirror every morning. "What did that person look like?"

Somehow, Rin got the impression that Tobi was blushing. "Um... She had brown hair and eyes and she was really, _really_ nice..."

"What was her name?"

Had she met Tobi back when she was still Rin Nohara? He felt familiar in some way, but she couldn't put her finger on _how_. He was definitely memorable, and she couldn't remember ever seeing a orange masked man child in her youth.

"Rin-chan!" He exclaimed obliviously, and gave a yelp as he was shoved against a nearby tree trunk.

Rin held a kunai to his throat. "How do you know that girl?" She questioned, her voice deadly serious.

Nobody knew Rin Nohara- they weren't _supposed _to. She was supposed to blend into the background, to be an anonymous observer.

"That hurts..." Tobi whined. "Can you let Tobi go?"

"Not until you tell me how you know about Rin Nohara."

The masked man fell suddenly silent, and for a moment Rin feared that she might have killed him on accident. "Look," She tried again, "I'm not going to hurt you. Just answer my question."

"But you _are_ hurting me. Tobi's neck hurts," he complained plaintively, with an odd tone in his voice. "Hey! Tobi asked you first! How do _you_ know Rin-chan?"

She thought over her options. Really, she wouldn't lose anything by telling him- not really. Her past as Rin Nohara wouldn't affect her much- instead of being some dark past, it was a patch of light in the middle of her overall dark life. The only people who would care about her identity... well, one was dead, the other thought_she_ was dead, and the last one was the Yondaime of Konoha.

"Rin is a name I have used in the past," she admitted.

"You're lying," Tobi said bluntly, in a completely different voice. So different, in fact, that Rin was sure that a shinobi with a deep baritone had snuck up behind them during the confrontation. So, she had been right. This 'Tobi' was not what he seemed on first glance.

In response, she tightened her grip on her kunai. "How did you know Rin Nohara?" She repeated.

Tobi stared at her unnervingly. "...Rin's _dead,_" he said finally, almost like he wanted to clarify it for himself. "I _saw_ her die- I was _there!_

That just raised more questions than answers. She was pretty damn sure that the only people there were Kakashi and the-

"You were one of the hunter nin?" She asks, skeptically. Maybe some had gotten away, at the end. It didn't explain why one would react to her in such a way, but...

That seemed to struck him dumb for a moment. "_No,_" Tobi- or whoever the hell he actually was- hissed, as if the question had personally offended him. "I would _never_- How do you even _know-_"

She sees then a faint red color emanating from somewhere in the depths of the lunatic's mask. _Sharingan...? _It was a mistake, but she drops Tobi to the ground in shock. But the masked man does nothing, only stare at her with his red, red eye from underneath his mask.

He's muttering, Rin realizes, whispering intelligible words under his breath. She crouches down and his gaze follows her.

She can hear what he's saying now. "Rin's _dead _she's _dead _she isn't _you,_" he says furiously, "You might look like her but- _You _are not Rin."_  
_

Her mouth is dry, but she takes in the man's appearance- the vaguely familiar unkempt hair that crowns Tobi's orange mask, the brilliant red Sharingan that's shining from underneath his mask- and that was _impossible_, because there _are_ no Uchiha missing nin. She had kept track of Obito's relatives, even after her isolation from the village.

"Obito?" Rin asks, but that was _impossible-_ that boy was dead under a few tons of rock, and even if he was alive, even if he could have survived without half of his body... he wouldn't be _here_, wouldn't be have stayed as an idiot in an organization of missing nin, he would have came _back_-

There's strange, snuffling noises coming from the man in front of her, and it takes her a few moments to realize that Tobi was _crying_, the sobbing muffled under his thick orange mask.

"Rin-chan was a good girl," he says, in his original high-pitched voice. It's useless, now that she already knows something darker lies under that innocent facade. "Haruhi-chan _isn't_."

"You're crying," she states somewhat needlessly, and puts a hand on his mask. He jerks violently, but doesn't move away from her.

"I'm not crying," he retorts, in a familiar stubborn tone, "I just have something in my eye."

Now, she is the one who jerks away, a horrible, disbelieving feeling rising from inside of her. "You..." She manages, eyes wide, searching the form in front of her for any familiarity, any at all.

Impulsively, she reaches forward and grasps that one eyed- _one eyed_- mask with both hands. The man does not move.

Rin swallows, and _pulls_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Rating: **K

**Summary: **Obito explains. Rin isn't happy- but neither is Obito, once he realizes just who she is.

* * *

Her first thought is, _No_.

Because it couldn't be. Even with that single, blood red Sharingan staring at her from that scarred, horribly familiar face- it _couldn't_. He looked back with that one wide eye in shock, and she can't help but notice that it was the exact expression Obito had on his face the first time Rin had talked to him, all those years ago.

Messy spikes of black hair draped over his forehead, but they did nothing to hide the horrific whorled scars that cover the majority of the right half of his body- scars that Rin remembered, from his stint as a medic nin, as caused when when the human body tried to recover from immense amounts of pressure... for example, being crushed by several ton of rock.

The other side of the man's face is unmarred, and it is that side of his face that makes Rin gasp in shock and disbelief. Though without the baby fat that had plumped out his face back when they were still just children and almost two decades older, she can't mistake him as anyone other than who he is.

"O-Obito?" She stutters out uncharacteristically, and reaches out- was this just a hallucination of some sort? A genjutsu? But, even as the man shies away slightly from her fingers, she feels solid flesh.

"Rin," he says, voice choked. "But you're- you're _dead_."

"Funny," Rin manages, "I wanted to say the same."

Because this _is _Obito, no matter how hard it was to believe. Only he would have reacted to her in such a way- and he looked like him too, down to the missing eye and tousled black hair. He looked at her with shock, yes, but under that, the same adoration she had seen almost two decades past.

But that raised only more questions.

"But Obito- how are you-" Rin asks, before she hears the crack of a twig being snapped and whirls around to see Deidara's furious face.

"What the hell, un?" The blonde shouts, staring at them in disbelief. "What the fuck are you two _doing_?"

Rin realizes then, an uncharacteristic blush on her face, just how provocative their position is. Tobi-Obito backed up against the tree and her leaning forward forward that way... Of course, she had been threatening the man with a deadly weapon, but it looked like something else entirely.

Fortunately, she was saved from explaining by a high pitched interruption.

"Senpai! You're back!" Obito cheered, orange mask on his face- he must had put it back on as soon as he heard Deidara coming- completely back in his Tobi persona. "Did you know Haruhi-chan's a medic nin? I fell and hit my head and it really hurt and she fixed it for me!"

It wasn't a very believable lie, but Deidara seemed to have fallen for it. "You're a medic-nin, un?" He looks at her quizzically. Missing nin tended to be shinobi geared toward battle, not toward healing.

"...I have training for it in the past," she replied smoothly, "Not much, but enough to patch up the gash on your partner's forehead."

He stared, open-mouthed. "You- You saw his _face_?" The man managed finally.

Rin decided to go for the truthful route. Besides, how would she get to the forehead wound without doing so? "Yes," she said crisply.

Deidara looked stunned. Rin was suddenly reminded of the Team Minato bonding sessions when everyone would work together to get Kakashi's mask off- due to skill and sheer luck, the Hatake got away every time.

"Alright, whatever, un," he said at last. "I brought supplies, but I pissed off a bunch of villagers. We should probably get out of here, un."

Obito pushed past her with a deliberate childlike clumsiness to get to his partner, arms flopping around exaggeratedly. He took their brief close proximity to whisper lowly in her ear.

"Play along."

And she did, pretending that nothing had changed since Deidara had left, a few hours before- while in reality, _everything_ had.

* * *

He does explain, one night, as the two of them took watch while Deidara snored the night away in his tent. They sit, free of all of their masks- both literal and metaphorical.

He tells her of the ancient Uchiha who had nursed him back to health after the mission, how he had spent months underground wrapped in bandages and not much else. He stays oddly mute on the subject of just who the old man had been, and how he had recovered from a mortal injury with only scars on the right half of his body.

Rin doesn't probe. She has her own skeletons in the closet; it's no skin off her back to let Obito keep his.

Obito explains that he joined Akatsuki along with someone he called Zetsu, who he had met during his long months underground. He tells her that he did so to pay the old man back for saving his life- the man had had some sort of vision, and had made Obito promise to continue working for his dream after his own death.

She takes it in silently. "Why didn't you come back?" Rin asks finally. "It's been seventeen years."

He pales imperceptibly. "I wanted to, at first," Obito admits. "But I was too weak to make it back. By the time I had the strength to..." He gives her a meaningful look, and she understands.

"I was already dead," she says, and he tenses. "You were there, weren't you? In the clearing, when the Kiri nin attacked us. You saw everything."

"Yes," he bites out through gritted teeth. "I saw what Kakashi did."

Oh. Now, his anger makes sense. "It wasn't his fault," she voices quietly.

"He put his hand through your chest," he says in disbelief.

"I asked him to do it," she says, and he stares at her mutely with shocked eyes. "The hunter nin wanted me alive. I rather have Kakashi give me a quick death than a long, painful one at the hands of their medic nin, Obito."

She doesn't explain why the Kiri nin were after her, and her only. She had her secrets, and she would rather die than let Obito- innocent, good hearted Obito, who joined a S-rank organization to keep a promise- know that Rin Nohara wasn't nearly as kind, or as caring he had thought her to be.

"Rin," he asks, "How are you alive? That technique... was it a genjutsu? A shadow clone?" He tries to hide it, but Rin can hear the undercurrent of betrayal in his tone.

This, at least, was a question she could answer. "Neither." She tells him, "I just heal much better than the average person. It's a kekkai genkai that runs in my clan- at least, that's what I think it is. I have never met anyone else with the same clan marks as mine, so I can't be sure. I thought I died, but I woke up a few hours later."

She's very aware of the foremost question in Obito's mind- why didn't _she_ return to the village if she had survived?

But he stays silent, and she's grateful for it. They both have their secrets, and they're both willing to let the other keep theirs in exchange for being able to keep their own.

"...That's why you never came back," she realizes suddenly. "You thought Kakashi had killed me."

"I didn't have anyone else to return for," Obito says, as if imparting a shameful secret.

Rin blinks in shock. _What about Sensei?_ She wants to ask, _What about Kakashi? _But she doesn't, because she understands now just why she had bonded so quickly and so deeply with Obito. They were similar, more than she had ever knew. They had disguised it with various masks, but underneath it all, they were both lonely children who had longed for a friend- and they had found one, in each other.

She leans over and puts her arms around him, holding Obito tightly. He tenses at her touch and looks at her with one shocked eye, but she holds on and he doesn't resist.

"...I missed you, Obito," Rin says, and kisses him.

He doesn't return the kiss; instead, he stares at her in shock. She draws back worriedly- had their feelings for each other not been as mutual as she had believed?

"I'm sorry," She tells him, suddenly guilty. She should have known things would have changed in the last seventeen years. "I thought you-"

"No- I'm- I thought you liked _Kakashi_." Obito manages.

Oh. "No- _No_, I-" She giggles giddily, "Even when we were kids, I've always liked _you_." And she moves closer, enveloping his mouth in a deeper kiss.

After a moment, he returns it.

* * *

It feels almost like a dream come true. How many times had she hoped- had prayed, even- that she could have some second chance to make things right?

Nobody notices. She thinks Deidara might, sometimes. He gives her strange looks. But he never comes up to her, never asks her- and she could almost picture him saying it- "The fuck's wrong with you? You and _Tobi?"_

Obito hasn't changed much since the days of their youth, she thinks. He treats her the same way as he did when he was only a boy, and she tries to be the same person she pretended to be, all those years ago. It works- or at least, she wants it to work.

If only certain dark secrets stayed where they were buried.

* * *

But of course, skeletons never do stay in their closet, no matter how much you wish for them to.

She should have known there was something darker lying under the veneer of Akatsuki's relatively innocuous face. After all, there wasn't much _good_ things that resulted from gathering the tailed beasts.

'Tobi' and Deidara had been the ones to go after the Sanbi. That, of course, had confused her a bit. Last she had heard of the beast, it had been sealed inside the Mizukage Yagura, who had been the successor to the man she had served, all those years ago. But now, it was free from its human host.

Rin wondered vaguely how Yagura had been taken down. He might have been the one to really cement her former village's reputation as the 'Bloody Mist', but she respected him as a strong shinobi. But she had more important things to worry about.

She had went through the ceremony without protest, watching silently as the monster was somehow sealed into a- a really strange looking statue. It was only when everything was over that Rin confronted Obito.

"What _was_ that?" She asked him, once she was sure there were no eavesdroppers. "Why is Akatsuki doing this?"

Obito gazed at her with one baleful eye.

"Well?" Rin urged, impatiently.

So he told her. Akatsuki's goal was peace, he said. Using the tailed beasts, they would be able to stop wars, like the one that had taken the lives of so many of their friends and family.

"...That isn't all, is it."

Obito looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I never could lie to you, Rin." He sighed, and gave her an explanation that, if he had been anyone else, would have made her laugh out loud. Because seriously? The Sage of Six Paths, a figure found only in childhood bedtime stories and the mythical Juubi, whose body was stuck in the _moon, _both existed. And Obito wanted to bring the latter 'back to life'.

"You... You really aren't joking, are you." The Uchiha nodded. "But... Why? What use would some eldritch abomination be to you in your goal for peace?"

"Rin, I can make a perfect world." He explained, almost excitedly. "Don't you see? With the power of the Juubi, I can do _anything- _I can bring the dead to life, I can make sure everyone gets along, I can make _peace_. Everyone will be happy, and nobody will ever die, and-" He faltered. "W-What's wrong?"

She stared at him with dull shock. "You aren't just a simple member in Akatsuki," she said with growing realization. "You know too much. I bet that partner of yours- Deidara- has no idea of the reasons behind what he is being ordered to do."

"You're right," Obito admitted, "I'm not just a member. Tobi is my cover. I'm the leader."

Rin couldn't help but laugh, albeit a bit hysterically. "Obito, how the _hell_ did you end up from buried in a cave in Iwa to being the head of a S-ranked organization?"

He looked confused at her reaction. "The old man who rescued me was Madara Uchiha- yes, the one whose statue stands in the Valley of the End. He was my mentor."

"...How is he still alive?" Even ignoring the fact that history books said that the man had died in his final battle against his rival, the Uchiha would be around a century in age.

"He has his ways," Obito replied cryptically. "He told me the truth, Rin. This life we live in... it's a complete hell. Innocent people suffer and die for no reason at all. I need to change it, Rin. _We_ need to change it."

"But Obito," She could hardly believe what she was hearing. What had happened to that cheerful, idealistic boy she had known all those years ago? "You can't force people into being happy. You can't force people into making peace-"

"But I _can." _In that moment, he looked beyond frightening. "Don't you _see_, Rin? As long as I have the power of the Juubi, I _can_."

Rin gazes at him mutely. He looks disappointed. "Look what this world has done to you, Rin." Obito says vehemently. "But again, perhaps that is the fate of all shinobi who survive in this world of ours. Even you have changed, as I did, as Kakashi did. In that world of mine, however... You would not have had to change."

She laughs, harsh and bitter. "No, Obito. You misunderstand. I was _never_ perfect- I was never as selfless, as kind, as great as you thought I was. Maybe _Rin_ was, but... She was just a role I played."

His eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about."

Rin had never thought she would voluntarily tell anyone about this particular aspect of her past. But here she was. "I was never the sweet little girl everyone saw me as. Back in the war... I was a spy, Obito. I was a Kirigakure jounin. That was why those hunter nin were after me. I turned away from their side after Kannabi Bridge." She pauses. "You have to understand, Obito. It's impossible for a perfect world to exist because... there are no perfect people. Not even me. Rin Nohara may have been, but she was never real. Just a fairy tale... like the world you want to make."_  
_

His eyes are wide in shock- and then he just looked furious. "No. _No_. You- You're just lying to me. You can't be-"

"I have no reason to lie," she tells him. "Obito, I-I wish this wasn't the truth."

His teeth are bared in a snarl. "We were best friends as children. Were you just using me as another source of information? Was _this_ a lie, then? Were you just humoring me, pretending that you actually felt something for me?"

"_No_!" She denies vehemently, "I've always loved you, Obito. I just couldn't- Back then, if my village ever found out that I had feelings for you, I would have been forced back to my village to undergo punishment and you-" She faltered. "You would have had a target painted on your back. Besides, you loved someone who didn't exist. I just couldn't do that to you. And then... you died." Rin bites her lip. "But... I want to think that we have a chance now. A chance to- to _try_."

Obito looked poleaxed. "Oh," he whispered, and Rin seized the opportunity. "Obito, this world you want to create- No matter how much you want it to be... it will be an illusion. A world of lies. Even if- somehow- in that world, we're still together... It wouldn't be _real_."

"Rin," he says, "I'm doing this for _you_."

"Then just- just _be_ with me, Obito." Her voice cracks. "I'm not be the girl you remember. I'm not perfect. But... none of us are. Maybe we could be, in that made-up world you're working toward- but we could have something real here. Wouldn't that be better than- than some _lie_?"

He's silent.

"Rin," Obito says finally, voice quiet, "Do you know what I've done for this? How many people I've _killed_ for this? If I give this up now... their sacrifices will be in vain. They would have died for nothing."

"And how many more will have to die for you to achieve this... this 'Moon Eye's Plan' of yours?" Rin demands, eyes wet despite her best effort. "Hundreds? _Thousands? _Obito, people aren't just going to let you do this. They want to live in a world of freedom, of choice, of _truth_. And... I want to, too." She bites her lip hard, and tastes blood. "I-If you do this... I can't stay with you. Your path is one I cannot follow."_  
_

"Please." She begs. "Obito, don't do this. It's not too late. Give _us_ a chance."

* * *

Nobody notices their departure for weeks. Haruhi and 'Tobi' simply drop contact during an extended reconnaissance mission in Wave. No one blinks an eye when they don't turn up on the date they are supposed to. That idiot Tobi probably got lost and dragged his rookie partner along with him. He'll probably turn up in a few days.

But they don't. Sasori tells his spies to keep an eye out for a man wearing an orange mask or a woman with pale hair and stripes on her cheeks- or, anyone claiming to have taken down some Akatsuki members. There are, of course, the usual drunk braggarts in the village taverns, but there are no solid leads. This isn't much of a concern to the majority of the organization. Neither of the two had been especially valuable to Akatsuki, after all. Their rings would turn up eventually.

And if Leader-sama or Zetsu had seem uncharacteristically distraught in the meantime, nobody noticed.

Slowly but steadily, the organization begins to unravel. Orders and missions seemed confused and disorganized. They still hunted the jinchuriki, yes, but Leader-sama no longer gave them the general location and power level of their target. They still made progress, but incredibly slow progress.

What had changed? Leader-sama was the same. If any key informant had been eliminated or discovered, it wasn't known. Zetsu, for his part, seemed to take the loss of his subordinate hard- at least, harder than most would think.

Eventually, Leader-sama made an announcement to the organization- find the man calling himself Tobi. But the orange masked man never did turn up. It was almost as if he had vanished off the surface of the Earth.

* * *

They didn't stay anywhere for long. A few days in this small village, a week in another. They took care not to draw attention.

It was easy for Obito. Simply taking off his mask removed most of his distinctiveness. His scars, while grievous, was not out of place. His age marked him as a veteran of the Third Shinobi War, and such injuries were not uncommon among those ranks. The missing eye remained uncovered. He had discovered over the years that an eye patch or gauze tended to draw more attention than a closed eyelid.

Rin's hair was easily remedied. She picked up some hair dye in the first village they had came across and, some time in the motel bathroom, came out looking just a bit more like the kind Konoha medic nin from all those years ago. A pair of contacts finished her 'disguise'. But now, looking in the mirror, Rin wondered whether _this_ was her true face.

They look nothing like Tobi and Haruhi Kihara, S-ranked missing nin. And, judging from their lack of pursuers, everyone else thought so too.

* * *

"We should go back," Rin says one day, in their ratty motel room. "We really should."

"And why should we?" Obito asks, from his position near the door. He doesn't ask where they should go back to. He doesn't have to. "They think we're dead."

She frowns, walking over to him. "Maybe that's why we should."

"Rin," he pleads.

She did not relent. "You know how Kakashi is. He's probably blaming himself for everything- that's what he did after we thought you died." Her tone is not accusing. "We should go back- let them know that we're alive, at least. We don't have to stay, and I don't blame them if they don't want us to."

Rin looks back at him and her gaze softens. "Look, it's not going to be easy. We've both done some pretty bad things since then. I'm not exactly thrilled to have to explain to Minato-sensei about my past, but... we owe it to them. Kakashi, Sensei, Kushina-san... everyone- they deserve the truth."

"Maybe they don't want the truth," he argues stubbornly. "Maybe they're better off thinking that we're dead than... what we actually are."

She smiles wryly at that. "Do you really think so, Obito?" She asks. "Do you really believe that?"

He doesn't.

* * *

**Look for the epilogue for this fic, coming soon. Shouldn't be long. Sorry for the long wait time. Thanks to desertrommel for giving me the kick in the butt I needed to get this chapter done. As usual, please review.**


	6. Epilogue

They're closer to Konoha than she thought. It takes almost a month to get back, but truthfully, Rin had always thought of the village as existing in some separate world that she could never again return to.

Well, here she was.

Though it had been close to two decades since she had last seen them, she was struck to the bone by the overwhelming familarity she felt as she gazed upon those gates. She had left Konoha before for days, weeks, and on one occasion, months, but this had been the longest by far.

At her side, Obito says, "I can't do this." His voice is choked and when she looks over, his eyes are tearing up.

For a moment, she resists the urge to tease him about his old dust problems. Instead, she nudges him. "We've come all this way. Don't turn away now."

"Do you have any idea what I've done?" He hisses, "I- I've plotted the destruction of this village - of my village. I turned my back on it and everyone in it. All because of the words of an old man who lived under a cave. How can I go back?" His hands fist at his sides, and Obito turns. "You go. I- I can't."

Rin blocks him. "What the hell are you thinking?" She snaps, because there's no way in hell that she's going to just let him walk away and - she can see it in his eyes - kill himself in some lonely place where no one could find his corpse. He had dedicated his life to his Moon Eye's Plan and forsaken it for Rin, and if she leaves now...

"You've done some pretty bad things, I'm not going to say that you didn't. But you know what? I've done worse." Obito looks disbelieving. "Do you really think that I spent all those years as a spy just sitting around? I've killed people, ones who trusted me and thought I wouldn't stab them in the back."

"I wanted to force the world into being something it wasn't. Something I wanted it to be. I planned for thousands of deaths. Sensei's, Kushina-kun's, Kakashi's... it didn't matter to me at all. I just wanted you back." His voice cracks. "How can I look them in the eye after that?"

"But you didn't," she insists, "you turned your back on that. You didn't go through with it."

"I would have."

She punches him. She can't help it, really. Obito clutches a hand to his bleeding nose, a look of pure surprise on his face. "Would haves, could haves," she hisses, "So what if you would have? You didn't. You didn't make that choice. If I judged you for something you could have done, I would have to judge myself for that too."

There were so many turning points in their lives. What if Rin had never been assigned to Konoha? What if Obito hadn't arrived late that first day of school? If she had been discovered? If she had chosen her mission over her team?

She shuts that thought down quickly. That's something she doesn't want to think about, not ever.

Obito looks stunned, and not just because of his broken nose.

"It's only a few feet. Come with me." She holds out her hand, "At least, see our team again. If it doesn't work out, we can still leave." Rin doesn't mention the possibility of them being executed as traitors. She doesn't have to - Obito knows, she can see it in his eyes.

Still, he takes her hand.

* * *

The guard eyes them balefully over the clipboard. "Names?"

Rin forces herself to be calm. "Rin Nohara," she says, saying her true name for the first time in decades, "and Obito Uchiha." Obito tenses at her side. He heals fast - the only evidence that his nose had ever been broken were the smears of dried blood on his hands.

The man scans the list, still looking bored. "...Nope, you're not on here. You two playin' a joke? All the Uchiha are in the village right now."

"We aren't," Rin promises, "look, can you do me a favor? Get someone to tell the Yondaime that we're here. Se- He will tell you if we're welcome or not."

He doesn't look very happy, but he does so. The next few minutes are spent waiting for a reply. The guard doesn't view them as a threat - and why should he? They had arrived in civilian clothing and with no hitai-ate of any sort - Rin's had been destroyed years ago, and she has an inkling that a Konoha hitai-ate still lies under a ton of rocks deep in Iwa territory. He has no reason to believe that they're missing nin.

It doesn't take long for a response. Definitely not long enough for their request to reach the Hokage and back.

An ANBU jumps down from the gates, his mask that of a snarling canine. He's dressed in the uniform of an ANBU commander. The guard yelps, then scrambles into position.

"ANBU-sama!" He greets. The man pays him no mind. Instead, he whirls to face Rin and Obito.

"How did you know those names?" He demands angrily. "Who told you-" The ANBU cuts off, and stares at them motionlessly. Rin gazes back, taking in the silvery white hair that peeks out from over the porcelain mask, the imperceptible shaking of his hands, and smiles sadly.

The ANBU makes a small, broken sound. It sounds like a cross between a sob and a laugh.

"Hey Bakakashi," Obito says from beside her, an easy smile on his face. "Did you miss us?"

* * *

**A/N: Might write more in this verse in the future, specifically the fate of Akatsuki and the reactions of the other half of Team Minato.**


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